The spring note of the chickadee.

January 9.

Snows again. 

P. M. – To Deep Cut. 

The wind is southwest, and the snow is very moist, with large flakes. Looking toward Trillium Wood, the nearer flakes appear to move quite swiftly, often making the impression of a continuous white line. They are also seen to move directly and nearly horizontally, but the more distant flakes appear to loiter in the air, as if uncertain how they will approach the earth, or even to cross the course of the former, and are always seen as simple and distinct flakes. I think that this difference is simply owing to the fact that the former pass quickly over the field of view, while the latter are much longer in it. 

This moist snow has affected the yellow sulphur parmelias and others. They have all got a green hue, and the fruit of the smallest lichen looks fresh and fair. And the wet willow bark is a brighter yellow. 

Some chickadees come flitting close to me, and one utters its spring note, phe-be, for which I feel under obligations to him.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, January 9, 1858

Some chickadees come flitting close to me, and one utters its spring note, phe-be. See  

The chickadee

Hops near to me.

November 8, 1857

The chickadee hops

nearer and nearer as the

winter advances.

December 1, 1853

Chickadees flit close

and naively peck at the

nearest twig to you,

December 3, 1856

January 7, 1851 ("January thaw. . . . and the chickadees are oftener heard."); January 7, 1855 ("Here comes a little flock of titmice, plainly to keep me company,. . . restlessly hopping along the alders, with a sharp, clear, lisping note."); January 18, 1860 ("Standing under Lee's Cliff, several chickadees, uttering their faint notes, come flitting near to me as usual."); February 9, 1856 ("I hear a phoebe note from a chickadee"); March 1, 1854 (" I hear the phoebe or spring note of the chickadee"); March 1, 1856 ("I hear several times the fine-drawn phe-be note of the chickadee, which I heard only once during the winter. Singular that I should hear this on the first spring day.")  See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, the Chickadee in Winter